Just One Drop
by jennamarie
Summary: One of Watari's failed potions has an unexpected effect...


As always, I own nothing.

And praise and thanks to TrisakAminawn for beta-reading this bit of insanity. Any remaining errors or vague references are entirely mine!

Look Gillie! I finished it! XD

**Just…**

**One…**

**Drop…**

Watari watched as the clear liquid collected at the end of the dropper and trembled for a moment before gravity did its job and pulled the single drop down into the waiting flask. Crouching down until he was eye level with the flask, Watari held his breath as he watched the pale pink fluid expectantly.

A small bubble formed near the bottom of the flask and drifted to the surface.

Then another…

And another…

In less than a minute the pink fluid was bubbling wildly.

"Okay now, start to die down," Watari muttered, gesturing with his hands as if to calm the rolling liquid. "C'mon…"

As if it had heard him, the fluid began to bubble even more ferociously than it had before. Watari's eyes widened in realization. "Ohshit!" And he instantly ducked for cover under the table.

KA-BOOM!!

Cautiously Watari crawled out from under the table and surveyed the damage.

Shards of glass were strewn around, embedded into whatever they hit, the window bore two new cracks and his door was out somewhere in the hallway. Every surface was splattered by the pale pink potion, running down the walls, pooling on the floor, dripping from the ceiling.

Watari eyed the mess with his jaw hanging somewhere around his knees. "I am so dead!"

"I believe I would agree with you, Watari-san."

Watari whirled around to find Tatsumi standing in the open space that used to house his door, holding a steaming cup in his hand. The secretary looked mildly irritated as he gingerly stepped into the wreckage of the lab. "What happened?"

"The usual," Watari admitted, slumping; the very picture of dejection.

Tatsumi sighed. "When are you going to stop trying to create a gender change potion?"

"When I've succeeded of course!" Watari declared, immediately perking up.

Tatsumi marvelled at the scientist's ability to change moods as quickly as some people changed hats. His eyes followed Watari as the blonde moved to a relatively unscathed corner of the lab and pulled out a mop, broom and bucket out of an elephant-foot umbrella stand.

He did not notice when his cup passed under a wet patch of ceiling.

Nor did he notice the single drop of pale pink potion that landed in his coffee.

Watari immediately began to run the mop over the wet places, cleaning up the mess.

Tatsumi nodded approvingly. "I will expect a report on the damages in the next day or so."

Watari groaned. "Only you could use paperwork to turn an explosion into a disaster."

"Nonetheless…" Tatsumi smirked. "If you plan to receive any of the repair costs from the division, then I will receive that paperwork."

"Yes, Sir!" Watari saluted with the hand not holding the mop.

"Good." Tatsumi took a sip of his coffee. "I'll expect to see you later then." With a nod, he made his way out of the lab.

Watari looked around with a sigh before going back to his cleaning. This was going to take a while.

**XXX**

"Muraki desu."

"Hi. Is your refrigerator running?"

"What?"

"Is your refrigerator running?"

"Yes."

"Then you'd better go catch it!"

"What? Who the hell is this?"

Click.

Muraki Kazutaka stared at the phone in his hand. That voice had sounded familiar, but he just couldn't place it…

**XXX**

Watari surveyed his lab one more time. It looked much cleaner now, and a bit emptier. He had been cleaning for a whole day and had just finished this morning, but he was finally done. Now it was time to see about his report. He left the lab and headed to the office that was shared by Tsuzuki and Hisoka. He knocked on the door and pushed it open.

"Yes?"

"Hey bon, did you finish my report for me?"

Hisoka held up a neat stack of papers. Watari grinned and bounded over, his hand outstretched, but Hisoka pulled the papers back out of reach. "And the price for this little favour?"

Watari sighed. "I won't ask you to try any of my potions for the next six months."

"And?"

"I won't try to slip you anything when you're not looking."

"And?"

"If I feel the need to test anything via the office coffee or other office supplied snacks, I will give you twenty-four hours notice."

"Good boy." Hisoka finally held the papers out to Watari.

"Wow, bon!" Watari said as he looked through the report. "This is really good! I might actually get the funding for the repairs with this!"

Hisoka gave him a pointed look. "It's because I don't use the word 'please' 47 times in block letters."

"Hey guys!" Tsuzuki popped his head into the room, cutting off any retort Watari might have been about to make. "Tatsumi wants us all to come down to the briefing room."

"Why?" Watari asked as Hisoka got up from his desk.

Tsuzuki shrugged. "Dunno, but we'd better not keep him waiting."

**XXX**

"Good morning everyone," Tatsumi nodded to the assembled shinigami, gesturing for them to help themselves to coffee from a machine on a side table. Once everyone was seated, cups in hand, Tatsumi cleared his throat. "I trust everyone slept well."

There were general nods in response.

"I called you down here because there is a little internal paperwork we need to get out of the way."

The group of shinigami winced collectively as Tatsumi turned and gathered a huge stack of papers and started handing out individual piles. "As you can see it's a basic one page questionnaire, copies will go to the various departments, color coded of course. In the interest of time the copies are interposed with carbon paper, so you need only fill out the top page, but please be sure that each subsequent page is legible. I expect all of them to be returned to my office by noon. Thank you."

With much muttering and scraping of chairs the shinigami left the briefing room, the majority returning to their desks to fill out the forms.

Hisoka sat down at his desk and pulled in his chair. Setting down his coffee, he pulled the paperwork forward. Tsuzuki sat at his desk, looked at the papers and then got back to his feet.

"I'm going down to the break room."

Hisoka glared and pointed at Tsuzuki's chair. "You just had coffee, sit."

"But 'Soka!"

"Sit!"

Tsuzuki sat. "But we have over and hour and it's just one page!"

"It'll probably take you an hour to fill out that one page!"

Tsuzuki gave in and began to fill in the form.

Hisoka finished his, scanned through to make sure all the copies were clear, then went back to his (Tsuzuki's) other paperwork.

For nearly 20 minutes the office was quiet except for Tsuzuki's 'I'm working and it's torture' filled sighs. Finally the amethyst eyed man looked up.

"I'm done!" He proclaimed proudly.

"Make sure you check the copies," Hisoka pointed out without looking up.

Tsuzuki lifted up the first page, then the second. Then he picked up the pile and fanned through it. "Um….'Soka?"

"Hum?"

"Wasn't there supposed to be carbon paper between the copies?"

"Um hum."

"So where's my carbon papers?!!" Tsuzuki cried, sounding just a little desperate.

Hisoka finally looked up. "Look, Tatsumi wanted those filled in by noon and it's almost 11:30 now, so you'd better get them done fast."

"Help me?" Tsuzuki pleaded.

Hisoka looked down at the pile of Tsuzuki's reports that he had been working on most of the morning (when not working on Watari's). "No."

"But 'Soka…"

"No."

"Please!"

"If those papers aren't handed in to Tatsumi by noon, he'll probably come to get them, so you'd better hurry," Hisoka pointed out, returning to the paper in front of him.

Frantically Tsuzuki began to write, whimpering to himself.

Hisoka lifted his head suddenly and looked around. He could have sworn he felt a ripple of amusement, gone before he could fix on a source. Maybe it was just him, Hisoka let the corners of his mouth twitch upward as he glanced over at Tsuzuki's melodramatics as he wrote furiously. It was pretty funny after all.

**XXX**

"Muraki desu."

"Congratulations Muraki-san! You have won first prize in our contest, provided you can answer our skill testing question."

"And what would that be?"

"Spell pig backwards and say funny."

"G, I, P, funny?"

"You do?"

"…Wait! Who the Hell is this?"

"…"

"Dammit!"

**XXX**

"Tsuzuki-san? Kurosaki-kun? The two of you have yet to turn in your forms."

Hisoka looked up in surprise at the voice to find Tatsumi standing in the doorway, one brow arched at the partners.

"I'm on the last page Tatsumi! I swear! Just give me a minute…" Tsuzuki babbled as Hisoka looked up at the clock.

Half past noon.

Oops. He'd been so focused on his work that he'd lost track of the time. "Sorry Tatsumi-san, I got preoccupied."

Tatsumi nodded, accepting the excuse. Stepping into the room he picked up the finished forms off Hisoka's desk and turned to Tsuzuki. "Well?"

"Finished!" Tsuzuki beamed, handing over his forms.

Tatsumi fanned through them quickly. "You missed a page."

Tatsumi and Hisoka watched with identical smirks as Tsuzuki grabbed back the pile of pages, scribbled in the required information at warp ten, then collapsed dramatically into his chair, his entire body going limp. Hisoka rolled his eyes at the theatrics and Tatsumi sighed as he reclaimed the forms.

"So much for legibility."

Tsuzuki scowled at the shadow master, who met the look with slightly upturned lips before heading out of the office.

Hisoka had already turned his attention back to his (Tsuzuki's) waiting forms when a hand caught hold of the paper he'd been writing on and pulled it out from under the pen.

"C'mon Hisoka, let's go get some lunch!" Tsuzuki crouched down in front of the desk, his chin resting on the edge of it.

In the space of a single heartbeat Hisoka considered many responses to this request before realizing that his partner had already worked halfway into the noon hour and it was a minor miracle that his stomach had not yet imploded. That and the fact that he had probably accomplished more work than he had in the previous week.

"Alright." Hisoka placed his hands on his desk and pushed his chair back.

Or rather, _tried_ to push his chair back.

"Um, Tsuzuki?" Hisoka called out. He pushed harder to no avail. "I seem to be a little stuck!"

**XXX**

"Okay everybody, push! Not you Tsuzuki, you moron! You pull!"

"Oh, right."

Watari stopped outside the door of Tsuzuki and Hisoka's office and tilted his head in curiosity, listening to a calamity of grunts, groans and curses. Opening the door a crack, he peeked into the room to see a bunch of people crowded around Hisoka's desk, straining with effort. Terazuma seemed to be directing a group of assorted Ju-on-cho personnel pushing against Hisoka's desk while Tsuzuki pulled at his chair. Tatsumi stood across the room leaning against the wall watching the spectacle with barely perceptible twitching of his lips.

Watari pulled back from the crack and knocked on the door before pushing his way into the room. "Hey, what's going on?"

Hisoka groaned and let his head fall onto his desk with a thunk. "It's getting way too crowded in here."

Tsuzuki met Watari's appearance with a little more enthusiasm. "Hisoka's stuck! Can you help us?"

Watari waved everyone back and circled the desk, gauging the situation. "You're pretty skinny bon, can't you just, kinda wiggle out?"

Hisoka scowled at him. "No, I tried. I don't bend that way, unless I'm willing to break a couple of bones."

Watari placed his hand on the chair and pushed against the immovable object. "I wonder what's keeping it there," he mumbled to himself, getting down on his hands and knees and crawling underneath Hisoka's chair.

Hisoka yelped. "Watari-san! What are you doing?"

"Don't worry bon, I'm just going to check things out."

There was an unidentified snicker.

Around the legs of Hisoka's chair there was something shiny on the floor. Watari leaned closer, it looked wet. Hesitantly he reached out and touched it and pulled back his fingers.

Or rather, _tried_ to pull back his fingers.

"Uh oh."

"Watari?"

Watari turned his head to see Tsuzuki squeezing under the chair to join him. "Tsuzuki! Look out for the…"

Tsuzuki's hand landed in one of the wet patches.

"…glue."

"Glue?" Tsuzuki asked, attempting to pull back his hand. "Ack! I'm stuck!"

"What are you morons doing down there?"

Tsuzuki and Watari both turned their heads to see Terazuma bent over, peering at them.

Watari shot Terazuma a dirty look and made a mental note to test his next batch of gender change potion on the irritable and irritating shinigami.

There was a movement in the crowd around the desk and someone bumped into Terazuma's backside. He put his hands forward to catch himself from falling. As luck would have it, his right hand came down on the wet patch around the third leg of Hisoka's chair.

"What the…?"

Watari idly wondered what effect being female would have on the possessed shinigami's temperamental shikigami. If touching a woman made the man transform, then if he was a woman…

"…Watari!"

"Huh? What?"

Terazuma glared at the scientist. "How do we get out of this?"

Watari stared at him blankly for a moment, and then an evilly amused smirk began to spread over his face as he tried to visualize Terazuma with longer hair and a bosom.

"Ahhhhhrrrrrgggggg!"

Tsuzuki stopped pulling at his hand and looked up, as did Watari.

"Are you alright Kurosaki-kun?" Tatsumi's calm voice spoke out.

"No! One's panicky, one's angry and one's being perverted!"

Watari blushed.

"And they're all right under my butt!"

Tsuzuki's eyes widened and his free hand flew to pinch his nose.

"Now two are perverted!" There was a scuffling sound as Hisoka started trying to struggle free. "Get me out of here!"

"Hey! Watch the feet!" Terazuma exclaimed as one came dangerously close to his head.

"Get me out, get me out, get me out…" Hisoka mumbled, ignoring Terazuma and redoubling his efforts.

"Calm down, Kurosaki-kun. I'll get you out of there." Tatsumi's voice cut through Hisoka's budding panic.

The struggling stopped as the youngest shinigami was swallowed up by shadows and re-emerged on the far side of the room. He stumbled before catching his balance. "Thank you Tatsumi-san." Hisoka hurried out of the room.

"Wait! What about us?" Tsuzuki cried as Tatsumi turned to follow Hisoka out.

Tatsumi threw a small evil grin back over his shoulder. "I doubt my shadows will be able to help you The three of you are stuck to the floor, Kurosaki-kun had no such restraints."

The three stuck shinigami watched him leave, Tsuzuki with wide puppy-dog eyes, Terazuma with barely concealed irritation and Watari with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Why didn't he do that to start with?"

"What?" Tsuzuki and Terazuma chorused, looking at the blonde scientist.

"He could have gotten bon out at the beginning, so why didn't he?"

Terazuma frowned. "That is strange…"

Tsuzuki whined. "I wanna get out of here! I'm hungry!"

"Shut up, you moron!" Terazuma snapped.

"But all I can smell is cranberries!"

"What did I say?" Terazuma growled.

"No, wait!" Watari leaned in close to a wet patch and sniffed. "It does smell like cranberries!" Watari's eyes widened. "This is one of mine!"

Tsuzuki and Terazuma looked at him blankly.

"I mean I made this a few weeks ago! Super sticky Bob-kun! Tatsumi confiscated it after I stuck most of the furniture in the break room to the ceiling!"

Tsuzuki grinned. "I remember that!"

"So how does that help us get out of here?" Terazuma asked. "I'd like to get out of this mess before I'm infected with moron."

Tsuzuki stuck out his tongue.

Watari grinned. "Bob-kun is water soluble."

"So all we need is…" Terazuma cut off, noticing a coffee mug on the desk. It was a long stretch, but he was able to reach it. It was half full of cold coffee. "Will this do?"

"It should." Watari ginned. "Pour away!"

Terazuma poured the coffee on the various shiny patches, and all three shinigami let out sighs of relief as their hands were freed.

"Lunch time!" Tsuzuki cried as he bounded to his feet.

"Hey Tsuzuki," Watari started to his feet as well. "Why are your teeth blue?"

**XXX**

"Muraki desu."

"Is Mr. Walls there?"

"No, there is no Mr. Walls here. I'm afraid you have a…""

"Well, what about Mrs. Walls then? Could I talk to her?"

"Look, there are no Walls here!"

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said there are no Walls here!"

"Oh, then what's holding up your roof?"

"…"

"snicker"

"When I get my hands on you…"

**XXX**

"I wonder if he's possessed," Watari wondered to himself as he watched Tsuzuki and Terazuma studying their bright blue teeth in the bathroom mirror. He had already looked and confirmed that his own teeth were a similar shade, but he thought they went well with his complexion.

"Who?" Tsuzuki asked, scrubbing at his teeth with a finger in a vain attempt to remove the offensive colouring.

"Tatsumi!" Watari exclaimed as if it were obvious. "He confiscated Bob-kun, he was the only one who could have glued bon's chair and desk to the floor!"

"Did you get the paperwork that Tatsumi handed out this morning?"

"Um, yeah, why?" Watari tilted his head in confusion at Tsuzuki's abrupt change of subject.

"Did your papers have carbon papers in them?"

"Yeah."

"So did Hisoka's, but mine didn't, and I had to fill out all the pages by hand. Tatsumi didn't seem surprised when he fanned through them, though."

Watari rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"And now we all have blue teeth. Didn't we all drink the coffee that Tatsumi provided at his little meeting this morning?" Terazuma asked, joining the conversation.

"I need a blood sample."

"Huh?" Tsuzuki and Terazuma both stared at the blonde, not comprehending.

"With a blood sample I can find out if he's possessed or not, or whatever else may be wrong with him. Tatsumi is definitely not acting like himself; he's… he's…"

"He's playing pranks." Tsuzuki provided.

"Right." Watari nodded. "Something is seriously wrong here…"

**XXX**

"…That's right, I want twenty extra large pizzas delivered to my house."

Watari was standing outside the slightly open door of Tatsumi's office, eyes wide, barely comprehending what he was hearing.

"Okay, I want anchovies, salted squid and olives on the first ten…"

Watari flinched.

"…and on the other ten, I want sour cream, mushrooms and pickles."

There was a pause, and Watari waited holding his breath. What was Tatsumi planning now? He wasn't going to try to feed them those pizzas, was he?

"Right, Muraki. Spelt M U R A K I. And if you can get them to me in the next hour, I'll pay triple the price."

Watari choked. Muraki? Tatsumi was… Watari covered his mouth in an attempt to stem his sudden mirth; he would love to see how the silver-haired doctor reacted to this little delivery!

On the other hand, this proved there was something wrong with Tatsumi. Hearing the rattle of a phone being hung up, Watari knocked on the office door.

"Come in."

Watari pushed the door open and walked into the office with his most genki smile in place. "Hey Tatsumi! Just a house call from your friendly neighbourhood scientist!"

"What can I do for you, Watari?" Tatsumi asked barely looking up from his desk, not looking at all like he had just been pranking a certain maniacal evil doctor.

"I just need a little blood sample," Watari told him, drawing an empty syringe from his pocket and heading for the desk.

Tatsumi pushed back from the desk, drawing both his arms out of reach and glared up at the blonde. "No."

"Aw, c'mon Tatsumi," Watari cooed, circling the desk, "It's just a little prick; you'll barely even feel it!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Tatsumi bolted up from his desk and ran out of the room.

Watari stared after him in surprise for a moment before giving chase. "Tatsumi! Get back here and let me stick you! It's for your own good!"

**XXX**

"Hisoka, please? I'm really sorry!"

Hisoka glared up at his partner through his lashes. "I'm stuck in a chair, and you're stuck right under me, and you start thinking dirty thoughts!"

Tsuzuki hid his grin. "Well if you hadn't reminded me I was right under your butt, there wouldn't have been a problem!"

Hisoka snorted and turned back to the tea he'd been preparing.

"Tatsuuuumiiiii!" Watari's approaching cry drew both partner's attention to the door of the break room just in time to see Tatsumi race past, grinning madly.

Tsuzuki and Hisoka shared a shocked glance before rushing to the door.

Watari ran past in pursuit of the secretary, his white coat flapping. "Just one poke! That's all, I promise!"

"That's it," Hisoka said, turning back to his partner. "I'm going home."

**XXX**

Tatsumi rounded a corner, glancing back over his shoulder; Watari was catching up to him. Putting on a burst of speed he reached the front door of Ju-on Cho and pulled the door open. Stepping back he held the door for Watari, who ran through with a breathless "Thanks!"

Closing the door and turning the lock, Tatsumi headed back towards his office at an easy pace. He had made it half way down the hallway when the pounding began on the door.

"Tatsumi! Let me in! Please!"

Tatsumi made no response to the banging and the pleading, except to smile just a little wider. He was whistling an innocent tune by the time he closed his office door.

**XXX**

With a muffled oomph, Watari fell through the window into his lab. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think that he would be breaking into the office! Climbing to his feet, he began to dust himself off, making a mental note to clean the window ledges sometime in the near future. He had only taken a step towards the door when he heard voices out in the hallway.

"Please 'Soka? You can't leave, Tatsumi will dock your pay!"

"I don't care!"

"The paperwork won't get finished!"

"Still not caring!"

"I'll get bored!"

"Then you can do the paperwork!"

"But I'll be lonely!"

"Fine, I'll stay."

Watari reached the door in time to see Tsuzuki glomp his younger partner.

"You know, we could both go."

"Oh no, you're not using me as your excuse to be lazy!"

"Psssst!"

The Kyushu pair turned back to see Watari gesturing for them to come into the lab. Exchanging a wary glance, they complied.

"I need your help."

"What do you need?" Tsuzuki asked eagerly.

"Collect everyone you can find and come back here, and don't let Tatsumi see you!"

**XXX**

"Muraki desu."

"Stupidsayswhat."

"What?"

"Exactly."

"."

"Snicker"

"Arghhhhh!"

**XXX**

"Hey Tatsumi! I'm back!"

Tatsumi snorted with annoyance, and quickly moved from his desk to stand behind his door.

The door swung open and Watari stepped into the room looking around for his prey. Not seeing the secretary, he moved farther into the room, heading towards the desk.

Taking advantage of Watari's confusion, Tatsumi slipped around the door and quietly snuck out of the office, his clean get away thwarted when Watari turned around.

"Get him!"

Before he could make a break for it, Tatsumi was tackled to the ground by five warm bodies. Watari quickly dove into the fray and grasping the correct arm, made quick work of retrieving the needed blood sample. Not waiting for the aftermath, the scientist took off down the hallway at full speed.

"I got it!"

The five bodies quickly dispersed, leaving the disgruntled secretary to find his way to his feet, sporting much more pink eye shadow and glitter gel that he had been wearing previously.

**XXX**

"So what's wrong with him?"

Watari looked up from the test results to see Tsuzuki's worried eyes focused on him. Giving the man a small reassuring grin, Watari turned to address small crowed that had gathered in his lab.

"He'll be fine, he just swallowed something he shouldn't have, he should be back to normal in a few more hours."

There were general sighs of relief and a few blue-toothed grins.

"What did he swallow?" Hisoka asked suspiciously.

Watari blushed and ducked his head. "The potion I made yesterday. I recognize the components. It was supposed to be a gender-switching potion, but apparently it altered his personality, but since he only ingested a tiny amount…"

Tsuzuki looked thoughtful. "So if he had drunk more…"

Watari grinned. "He probably would have been running around here with a clown nose on!"

**XXX**

Ding dong

Muraki Kazutaka opened his front door to see three young men standing there, each holding a stack of large flat boxes.

"Your pizzas are here, Muraki-san. You owe us 46,994 yen. Plus tip."


End file.
